Textile fiber cleaning machine



1957 G. J. KYAME ETAL 2,810,163

TEXTILE FIBER CLEANING MACHINE I Filed Sept. 5, 1956 INVENTORB GEORGE J.KYAME WILLIAM A. LATOUR ATTORNEY 5 2,810,163 F TEXTILE FIBER CLEANING MACHINE George J. Kyame and William A. Latonr, New Orleans,

La., assignors to the. United States of America as represented by, the Secretary of Agriculture Application September 5,.1956, Serial No. 608,175 2 Claims. (Cl. 19-96) (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), see. 266) A non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license in the invention herein described, for all governmental purposes, throughout the world, with the power to grant sublicenses for such purposes, is hereby granted to the Government of the United States of America.

This invention relates to a textile fiber cleaning machine and has among its objects the provision of such a machine having a fiber recovery system for recovering portions of the fibrous material hitherto discarded with the trash and thereby increasing the yield of the cleaned fiber obtained.

In the annexed drawing, the figure depicted represents a partially schematic and a partially longitudinal section of the textile fiber cleaning machine. This machine is a conventional type textile fiber cleaning machine which has been modified to include a fiber recovery system.

Referring with more particularity to the drawing, the machine is provided with a feed mechanism comprising a feed table 11 and a coacting feed roll 12 which advances tufts of fibrous material 13, such as cotton, into the path of a high speed beater 14 such as a spiked cylinder, which reduces the tufts to smaller tufts and individual fibers. The lower portion of the periphery of beater 14 is surrounded by a series of grid bars 15 which keep the fibrous material in contact with the beater while allowing dislodged trash particles and those loose fibers not firmly held by the beater to fall into trash box 16. The fibers retained by the beater are removed by doifer 17, which because it has a higher surface speed than the beater, doiis the fibers into lint flue 18 where suction conveys them to subsequent processing operations. The machine thus far described is of the usual construction.

'It is well known that a body rotating in air, such as beater 14, invariably carries with it a layer of air immediately adjacent its periphery. Any obstructions, such as grid bars, like grid bars 15, perforated screens, and the like, placed in the path of such moving air will scoop ofi and redirect the air to form violent counter streams.

In the conventional cleaner, trash particles and the loose fibers thrown off at the grid bars follow the counter streams of air, caused by the violent centrifugal action of the beater, which continually rebound from the bottom and walls of the trash box creating a violent turbulence within the trash box. As a result, any attempt to draw off the loose fibers alone by suction fails because of the complete intermingling of the trash particles which are drawn oft with these loose fibers in the violently turbulent air mass.

In the instant invention, a fiber recovery system is provided which avoids these deficiencies. The fiber recovery system provides fixed spaced plates 20 which are preferably fiat with the upper edges slightly curved, although they may take a number of shapes, and which are properly oriented directly below grid bars 15. One proper orientation of these plates 20 involves placing them so that their upper edges are in a horizontal plane approximately 6 inches below the lowermost grid bar 15. A sufiicient number of spaced plates are so positioned that the upper edge of each plate will overlap the lower edge of the next suceeding plate on the downstream side of the air flow when an air stream is drawn therethrough. Each of the spaced plates is forwardly inclined an amount sufficient' to deflect in a substantially horizontal direction the counter air streams reaching it. Thus the spaced plate nearest the feed roll will be almost horizontal while the succeeding plates will gradually approach the vertical.

The spaced plates slow down theviolent counter streams of'air and deflect them in such direction as to eliminate turbulence and permit satisfactory recovery of the fibers. In elfect, any streams of air carrying trash and loose fibers flowing generally tangentially from the beater must contact at least one of the spaced plates 20. Closure plate 21 prevents air from being drawn through the lower portion of trash box 16 between the end wall of the trash box and the first spaced plate 20.

Recovery of the loose fibers and segregation of the trash particles are accomplished by drawing a stream of air across the space between grid bars 15 and spaced plates 20 by means of exhaust fan 22. The velocity of the air stream is regulated so as to be suficient to just support and convey the fibers but to be insufficient to support the relatively heavier trash particles. As a result, the trash particles fall out of the air stream and into the bottom of trash box 16 after passing through the spaces between spaced plates 20. On reaching guide member 23, the air stream makes a turn around said guide member then moves upwardly into intake opening 24 of duct 25. As mentioned previously, the heavier trash particles are continually falling while the loose fibers are moving substantially horizontally with the air stream. There results, therefore, a heavy concentration of trash in the lower layers of the horizontally moving air stream. A separation plate 26, pivotally mounted along the lower edge of intake opening 24, is adjustable to regulate the division of the laden air stream so that the upper portion having the high loose fiber concentration enters intake opening 24 while the lower trash-laden portion is diverted into the trash box. The loose fiber-laden air entering intake opening 24 is conveyed through duct 25 to discharge opening 27 where the fibers are deposited on the surface of a rotating condenser cage 28 of conventional structure while the air continues on through the perforations of the cage into duct 29 to the intake of exhaust fan 22. Rollers 30 provide a rolling seal between the edges of duct 25 and cage 28.

The recovered loose fibers thus deposited on cage 28 are carried on to rotary brush 31 which sweeps said fibers onto the stock being fed to the feed roll 11 for reprocessing to remove any entrapped trash particles that might have been carried over with the loose fibers.

In the machine of the invention, the loose fiber losses are about A of the losses occurring in the conventional cleaner yet its cleaning efiiciency is comparably high.

What is claimed is:

1. A textile fiber cleaning machine comprising a rotatable beater, a feed mechanism for feeding a textile fibrous material containing trash particles into the path of said -beater, a series of spaced grid bars below the lower portion of the periphery of said beater for keeping the fibrous material in contact with the beater during its rotation while allowing dislodged trash particles and those loose fibers not firmly held by the beater to drop, a trash box below the said grid bars for catching and holding the said trash particles as they drop, a dofier for removing the fibers firmly held on the periphery of the rotating beater, spaced plates positioned below the grid bars so that any streams of air, caused by the centrifugal action of said beater, and carrying trash and loose fibers flowing generally tangentially, must contact at least one of said plates thereby to slow down said air streams, means for drawing a stream of air across the space betiveen the grid bars and spaced plates at a velocity suflicient to support and convey the dropped loose fibers but insulficient to support the relatiyely heayier trash particles whereupon the 'lieavier trash particlesWill sepafat e ffcim the foose fibers by falling out of the] air stream and into said trash box, and means for collecting the separated loose fibers from the air stream. I F

2. The machine of claim 1 wherein the means for collecting the separated loose fibers from the air stream comprises a duct through which the air stream containing the loose fibers is conveyed, a separation plate pivotally mounted at the intake opening of the said duct for regu- References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,003,884 Davis Sept. 19, 1911 1,284,922 OConnell Nov. 12, 1918 1,886,044 Quinn et a1. Nov. 1, 1932 

